30 Friends: Ran and Sonoko
by Ran-dezvous
Summary: Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget. Thirty stories of friendship for Ran and Sonoko. -The First Day Blues: Her first day of school sucked, and perhaps, it was about to get worse.-


**Title: **The First Day Blues  
**Author: **Ran-dezvous  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Subjects: **Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko  
**Theme: **#4 – walk beside me  
**Word Count: **915  
**Rating: **PG  
**Original Publish Date: **April 11, 2008  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Detective Conan. _But I do have a magical remote to control them when they're on vacation. If only Aoyama-sama knew.  
**Summary: **Her first day of school sucked, and perhaps, it was about to get worse.

* * *

Lost. That was the lone word lingering in Suzuki Sonoko's mind under the scorching heat of the afternoon sun. She had been wandering about the streets of Beika for an hour already (more or less), and she was nowhere near home. She would have gone to Teitan High School—where her older sister Ayako was studying—but she didn't know where that was, either. If only she had paid attention to the path her sister took when she brought to school this morning.

This wasn't exactly how she wanted her first day of school to be. She was lost, knew absolutely no one in class, and she missed her old home. Why did they have to move to Beika, anyway?

Sonoko groaned. She was tired and absolutely hungry. The latter wouldn't have been such a problem if she hadn't forgotten her wallet as well.

It was official. This day absolutely sucked.

Dragging her fatigued body along, she continued walking along in search of a refuge—or at least some place to sit down and rest for a while. After ten more minutes of walking (with various twists and turns), she saw what seemed to be a park—the only good thing that happened to her the entire day. "Fina—"

_Thump! _A soccer ball had hit her in the right eye.

Uh-oh.

"Ouch!" she yelped, rubbing her eye to relieve herself of the pain. She scanned her surroundings in search of the culprit. "What was that for, buster?" The now irritated girl yelled at the raven-haired kid who stood a few feet away from her. "I've had a really bad day today and"—Sonoko made an abrupt pause upon having a good look at his face—"Have I seen you somewhere before?"—she moved her gaze toward the chestnut-haired girl not too far from him—"You two seem familiar. . . ."

Ran approached her and replied, "Yeah, you're in the same class as us, right?" She clasped her hands together and clumsily bowed. "We're really sorry"—she glared at the boy beside her—"Shinichi!"

Shinichi, understanding her cue, followed suit.

She continued, still feeling flustered. "My place is not that far from here. . . . If you want, I could treat that black eye—I-I'm sure we have ice somewhere. . . ."

Sonoko shook her head. "No, you don't have to do that."

"But your . . ."

"You know what? I'm really starving. How 'bout we get something to eat?" She asked, the corners of her lips curved upward to form a tiny smile.

"But—"

"_Your_ treat. And after that, you can help me get back home—I'm kinda lost." Sonoko turned to Shinichi and said, "As for _you, _you have to carry my things for a month"—she shoved her backpack unto his hands—"starting now."

A sigh escaped from Shinichi's lips out of frustration.

"Unless . . . you would rather let my father know about this."

"Then let him know!" Shinichi proclaimed, a smug smile on his face. "I'm not afraid of him."

"Not even if _he's _the president of the Suzuki Zaibatsu?"

"No. Besides, you didn't even get hurt that much." He turned around, crossed his arms, and continued to speak in his usual conceited manner. "That black eye of yours—"

"Why you?!" Sonoko became infuriated and was prepared to clobber him, but Ran managed to pull her away.

"Shinichi, why do you always have to be so conceited?" Ran asked with an exasperated expression, still struggling to restrain Sonoko. "You want me to tell Dad what happened last week?"

"Hmph," Shinichi faced the two girls and scoffed, "I'm not afraid of that lousy detective."

"Are you afraid of this, then?" Ran charged a fist into his direction. Shinichi hurriedly moved his head to the right, barely crossing the thread that separated him from her brutal blow. "There's more where that came from, you know."

"A-a-alright already!" A bead of sweat had come down his face. "Why do you always have to be so violent?"

Ran withdrew her fist (of doom, Shinichi thought). "Maybe if you weren't such a jerk . . ."

Sonoko beamed in utter amazement. "Wow! That was awesome!"

"Oh, that?" Ran nervously responded, slightly embarrassed by Sonoko's flattery. "It was nothing—I mean, someone's gotta pop that ego of his."

Sonoko cheekily stuck her tongue out at him. "Hey!" he exclaimed in response.

"That's enough, you two!" Ran interjected. If it weren't for her apparent youth (she was only an elementary school student, after all), she would have been mistaken for a mother stopping her children from a fight. "I don't want my friends fighting over such a silly thing."

"Friends?" Sonoko uttered that most treasured word. "We're f-f-friends?"

"What's wrong, Sonoko-chan?" Ran asked in a soft voice. "Don't you want us to be friends?"

"You mean, even after the trouble I've caused you two . . ." She paused for a moment, a choking feeling coming over her throat. Her eyes were beginning to well up with tears. ". . . you still want me to be your friend?"

"Of course."

"T-t-thank you!" Sonoko suddenly leapt toward Ran, enclosing her in a hug. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "I-I thought I'd never find friends here. . . . T-thank you, Mouri-san."

"Call me Ran," she replied with an affectionate smile, hugging her back. "So are we gonna eat or what?"

Sonoko took a step back from her and smiled. "Sure."

* * *

_Hehe, another theme comm challenge—and I'm not even close to finishing the first one yet! This would be a sort of backburner project (as if I don't have enough non-challenge fics to finish); I just have some Ran/Sonoko theories that badly need an outlet, i.e. this challenge. (Hooray for no deadlines!)_

_There goes my silly attempt to write a fic on how Ran and Sonoko came to be friends. I have some misgivings about their characterization, though, especially that of Sonoko. And the pacing's kinda bothering me. Oh well._

_I don't own the friendship quote used in the summary of this series. Until next time!_


End file.
